Use of buzzwords is one of the conspicuous language features of the new generation in Hong Kong. As a kind of lexical innovation, fashion words coined and used commonly by today’s teenagers are originated from the Internet. Internet has become incredibly important for our social life. Through instant messaging and online communicating tools, including MSN, Facebook, e-mail and chat rooms, teenagers are able to send and receive messages.
'
When communicating online, fashion words are favoured by the Internet generation to describe one’s feelings and meanings in a more vivid way. For instance, the popular term “hea” is coined by young people to characterize the act of being lazy or doing nothing meaningful but just waiting the time to pass by. “Kai” is another example of fashion words, which is used to describe someone or something silly. Nowadays, the use of such coined words has even permeated into the daily conversations of young people, forming a particular modern culture shared only by youth of the same age group. Moreover, phenomena like code-mixing, use of slangs, lazy sounds, short forms, intensifiers and provocative phrases are also prevalent in youth language. Such fashionable language, as discussed above, reflects the rebellious and innovative cultures of the new generation, and at the same time, differentiates itself from other generations.
Do you think that the prevalence of buzzwords is originated from the Internet? How Internet influent the use of language and buzzwors in our society? =] Plz feel free to share your opinion here.
I think the net is a platform to nurture code mixing too. As we are Chinese, we seldom use English to dominate our chatting with friends on MSN, usually we will add some Chinese to help expressing ourselves!
ReplyDeleteI like the point of fashio word too, it's something really unique and creative for all youngsters to express their culture...but sometimes I found them hard to understand if I am not concern or stick to certain forums. =)